Monday, November 03, 2008

Intel Core i7-equipped Falcon Northwest Mach V gaming desktop hands-on

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/UmWb0s2_90g/

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Benchmarks and reviews of Intel's Core i7 processors are pouring in, and while mere mortals must wait till later this month to get their hands on the hardware, we spent much of our weekend working overtime with Crysis, Fallout 3, and Age of Conan on an $8,238 Core i7 965-equipped Mach V gaming desktop from boutique PC manufacturer Falcon Northwest. It's got the works and then some: liquid cooling, dual ATI Radeon 4870X2 graphics cards with 2GB of RAM on-board, 12 GB of DDR3 RAM, Blu-ray, HD-DVD (yes, you read that right), and over a terabyte of storage. Based on our dozen or so hours of grueling, utterly boring hands-on tests, all three games were plenty playable maxed out at 1920 x 1080 resolution with 4x anti-aliasing -- only Crysis ever dipped below 40 frames per second, and we never saw Fallout 3 under 60. We sincerely hope you appreciate the backbreaking, soulcrushingly hard work we do for you -- more photos and benchmarks in the gallery.

Intel Core i7-equipped Falcon Northwest Mach V gaming desktop hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pico Cube Projector is World's Smallest, Says Maker Epoq [Projectors]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Y71vrVSSRjA/pico-cube-projector-is-worlds-smallest-says-maker-epoq

"About the size and weight of a hen's egg" runs the tagline for this projector. That'd be some special large cubic hen then. But this Pico Cube EPP-HH01 from Epoq projector is undeniably tiny—it's just 2.2 x 2.2 x 1.6 inches across, which Epoq says makes it the world's smallest. It projects VGA resolution images from its LCoS image chip with a 3W LED light source giving it a 80:1 ANSI contrast ratio. It's no high-end video projector of course, but you don't expect that from a gadget of this size. And it does somehow squeeze in a speaker, making it handy for impromptu business presentations and such. It's due to ship this month, for a suitably tiny $230. [Gadgetcraver.com]


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RED Teases Nov 13th Announcement With Cryptic Renders, More Hyperbole [Red]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/hc_iqzPm1Ys/red-teases-nov-13th-announcement-with-cryptic-renders-more-hyperbole

RED CEO Jim Jannard is either an incredible visionary or prone to serial exaggeration. Just yesterday, he deigned to visit the RED forums, promising that "[RED is] doing things we never thought possible... When we do post, it will be very obvious why we needed a bit more time to 'spill the beans'." As a teaser, he decided to spill two of those beans early, in the form of vague, zoomed-in renders of RED's new HIV-curing, hunger-ending, climate-stabilizing übercamera.

Owners of any number of popular DSLRs will notice some familiar controls in these renders, but what does that mean? It seems obvious that Jannard's lovable breathlessness is for his new RED DSLR (or DSMC, I guess), and that his enthusiasm hasn't been diminished in light of the stunning video performance of Canon's 5D DSLR. RED certainly has a track record of innovation, but could Canon have beat them to the DSLR HD video punch? [RedUser via Crunchgear]


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Zotac Offers Mini-ITX Solution With Wi-Fi and Nvidia Graphics

2:10 PM - October 30, 2008 by Aaron Heibert 

Source: Tom's Hardware – Category : Motherboards5 comments

Been looking for a good Mini-ITX solution for a project? Home Theatre PC? Zotac has packed Nvidia power onto one of its new Mini-ITX boards, along with semi-built in Wi-Fi.

ZoomThe Zotac nForce 630i-ITX WiFi is part of the company's expansion on their Mini-ITX lineup. Featuring GeForce 7100 graphics processing, 630i media and communications chipset, 802.11b/g WiFi and support for all Core 2 Due and Core 2 Quad processors with a front side bus of 1333MHz - support for 667MHz / 800MHz DDR2.

Upon inspection of the backplane in the photos below, we can see the standard DSUB VGA connector and DVI connectors side by side – Zotac mentions the board is dual-display ready. A whopping SIX USB 2.0 ports on the backplane (there are two more available via another onboard header). Onboard 10/100 Ethernet. 802.11b/g WiFi antenna connector, and the HD audio ports for Line-In, Line-Out, and Mic. This board still has PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse which some people might find very useful while others can simply do without.

Zoom Zoom

Looking at the board and its layout, aside from the obvious LGA775 socket and power connectors, we can see two DDR2 slots, two SATA connectors, single PCI-Express 1X slot, single ATA connector, and front panel LED / Switch connectors next to the onboard fan power header.

For a Mini-ITX solution, this board packs enough features to make it very attractive for those eyeballing their next Home Theatre PC (HTPC) build. It has all the features, including graphics capability, that would make it a worthy choice.

More information can be found over at the Zotac page for the 630i-ITX WiFi board.

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CNN Fortune: Blackberry Storm as Low as $99 on Verizon? [Rumor]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/k6-YJFC5TdY/cnn-fortune-blackberry-storm-as-low-as-99-on-verizon

Fortune's Techland blog is reporting that with Vodafone's recent announcement that they would fully subsidize the Blackberry Storm, Verizon might be considering similar low cost options to compete against the iPhone. While some inside sources claimed Verizon may go as far as to make the phone free with a two-year contract, other anonymous blabbermouths from the Verizon camp shot that notion down.

Most analysts believe the Storm will be equally priced to the 8 GB iPhone at the very least, but its realistic to see it at a $99 or $150 price point. The goal is to move some serious units during the holiday season, but for that to happen, Verizion needs to actually release the Storm first. [Techland]


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Dane-Elec Tries Media and Music PMPs on For Size [PMPs]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/5o_OV0FHoIE/dane+elec-tries-media-and-music-pmps-on-for-size

Dane-Elec, known for distributing the iPhone ripoff Meizu 8 and the M6, is ready to try its hand with a few PMPs of its own. The first four players in the new line are named pretty much for what they do. There's the Music Mediatouch, for molesting music and media files with a touchscreen. Then there's the Music Touch, which is similar to the first, yet smaller. Music Pix shows off music and, well, pictures. Finally, the "music" is attached to a lanyard so you can lug your MP3s to soccer practice or something.

Here's the official details on each player, as translated by the folks at PMP Today (via French site GMP3):

The Music Mediatouch - 4.3-inch (480 × 272 pixel) touchscreen. FM tuner and TV out. Media file support: AVI, RMVB, WAV, ADPCM, MP3, WMA, WAV, APE, FLAC, JPG, GIF, BMP. Available in 4GB and 8GB versions with the 8GB going for $202.


The Music touch - 2.9-inch player (that doesn't actually have a touch screen — Jack). It has a 1.3MP camera and FM tuner, and supports RM, RMVB, AVI, FLV, MPG, Flash, DVD, MP3, WMA, WAV, ADPCM, JPG, GIF, BMP, , WAV. $161 for the non-touchscreen PMP with camera.


The Music pix - a 2! .4 (320 x 240)-inch PMP with support for MP3, WMA, WAV, ADPCM, JPG, BMP, MTV. The 4GB version is $80.


The music - supports WMA and MP3 and comes in a 2GB version priced at $47.

[GMP3 via PMP Today]


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Sony Ericsson Shooting Ad Campaign Entirely on C905 Cyber-shot Cell Phone [Sony Ericsson]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Jtg4xjnpLFQ/sony-ericsson-shooting-ad-campaign-entirely-on-c905-cyber+shot-cell-phone

It's being claimed as a first for the industry: Sony Ericsson has teamed up with FHM to shoot a professional ad campaign using nothing but the camera in the C905 Cybershot handset. Rumored to be a five-figure deal, the ad spread will run in the December issue of FHM to promote the camera phone during the holiday shopping season. The advertorial makes perfect sense for the 8.1 megapixel camera-equipped mobile, which has done much to further blur the line between digital cameras and mobiles. It's also a topic we've hit here at Gizmodo is the recent past, including the LG panel convened in September to hawk the convergence of HD video, cameras and cell phones.

The new FHM ad campaign is the brainchild of Bauer Media, which developed the creative using professional lighting, models, makeup and an expert fashion photographer. It was exactly the same scene you'd expect from a typical pompous "lad mag" marketing campaign, but with a cell phone camera doing the heavy lifting instead of some high-powered DSLR.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the Boston subway to take a few clandestine modeling pics with my iPhone 3G. [Mobile Marketing Magazine via Textually]


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